I was taught in public school in the 80s and 90s that noble gasses are inert and do not react with other chemicals.
I am incensed to learn that not only is this false, but that we knew it to be false in the 1960s.
I watched kids trivia the other day and noticed the same problem: many of the right answers were wrong. Even today, kids are taught gross over-simplifications that tend to contradict reality.
Having taught myself, I get the appeal of simplicity. We have to call out the asterisks.
@janusfox As a chemistry teacher this is one of the many things I have to deal with. I always include a "science exceptions" kind of thing with these ideas, but you have to consider that truly explaining expanded octets and electron domain geometry is all a bit much for year 8-10 periodic table...
